CHAPEL HILL — A few days of reflection and a closer study of the footage gave North Carolina’s offensive players and its coach a more encouraging outlook after a stagnant performance in the season opener.

“We just didn’t make enough plays,” quarterback Bryn Renner said Monday. “Whenever you lose, you think you can do a lot more. … We ran (almost) 80 plays, we just didn’t put the ball in the end zone (enough).”

The Tar Heels bemoaned offensive shortcomings in the aftermath of Thursday’s 27-10 setback at South Carolina.

The tone wasn’t quite as discouraging as North Carolina entered game week for Saturday afternoon’s non-league matchup against visiting Middle Tennessee.

“I don’t think we were that far away,” Tar Heels coach Larry Fedora said. “There were some bright spots on the film. There were some good things that happened.

“I think our guys can see from film that we’re not that far away.”

Renner said the Tar Heels shouldn’t have been shaken from facing an early deficit, pointing out they responded in come-from-behind situations a few times last year. He said there’s no reason to abandon the approach on offense.

“We’re never going to lose our confidence,” Renner said. “We know we can score very quickly. We also know we can improve. We didn’t have that one play we needed in the red zone.”

North Carolina actually had more first downs (18 to 17) than South Carolina. The offense was turnover-free, though the Tar Heels had a giveaway on a punt return.

North Carolina lacked a big-play highlight, so perhaps going against a team with a strong defensive reputation was too much.

“We need some explosive plays in there,” Fedora said.

Yet there will be fine-tuning across the board.

“When we get back to practice, we see ways we can improve,” Renner said. “Coach Fedora is real good about moving on.”

That tends to be the theme at this point.

“The offense is proven,” Fedora said. “Let’s go back to work and let’s execute better than we did last week.”

Fedora said there’s the same mindset as prior to the season regarding the impact of the first game. And, he said, because the Tar Heels didn’t play well across the board, the team shouldn’t be devastated. It would have been worse, he said, if North Carolina played to its maximum potential and wasn’t within striking range in the final minutes.

“This game doesn’t make or break our season,” Fedora said. “Yes, it was on a big stage and it was big and we talked about it being a measuring stick to find out where we were. We didn’t play the way we wanted to, so I don’t know if it was an adequate measuring stick.”